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Updated: Jan 29, 2026

Fabrication, Operation and Flow Visualization in Surface-acoustic-wave-driven Acoustic-counterflow Microfluidics
Published on: August 27, 2013
Born approximation of acoustic radiation force and torque on soft objects of arbitrary shape
Thomas S Jerome1, Yurii A Ilinskii1, Evgenia A Zabolotskaya1
1Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78713-8029, USA.
Abstract:
When the density and compressibility of an object are similar to the corresponding properties of the surrounding fluid and the incident sound field is a standing wave, the Born approximation may be used to calculate the acoustic radiation force and torque on an object of arbitrary shape. The approximation consists of integration over the monopole and dipole contributions to the force acting at each point within the region occupied by the object. The method is applied to axisymmetric objects, for which the force and torque may be expressed as a single integral along the axis of symmetry. The integral is evaluated analytically for spheres and cylinders. The accuracy of the Born approximation is assessed by comparison with complete solutions for compressible spheres and prolate spheroids that are based on expansions of the incident, scattered, and transmitted fields in terms of eigenfunctions of the corresponding separable coordinate system. Results are presented for objects with various densities and compressibilities relative to the surrounding fluid, as well as different shapes, sizes, and orientations of the object with respect to the standing wave field. The method also accommodates spatial variations of the density and compressibility within the object.
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